My Baby
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: Bellatrix is pregnant, but the child is not Rodolphus's. Written for thegoodgirldoll's Steal and Write First game on the HPFC forum.


Author's Notes: Written for thegoodgirldoll's Steal and Write First game, which required this to be written in a relatively short amount of time. The prompts given included blueberry pie and a detailed description of a birth or birthday.

Bellatrix/Rodolphus and off-screen Bellatrix/Voldemort.

Enjoy!

)O(

Bellatrix was curled in her favourite armchair, a blanket pulled up around her, waiting for her husband. She had been waiting for hours now, and doing nothing but repeating over and over in her head what she would say to him when he got there.

The front door clicked open and Bellatrix sprang upright. "Rod, I'm so glad to see you."

Rodolphus looked surprised – Bellatrix rarely expressed happiness at his presence. He came over to her and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm glad to see you too, Bella…"

She cleared her throat, and started the speech. "I know you've wanted children for a long time…"

His eyebrows drew together. "Pardon?"

"I kn- know you've wanted children for a long time and I ha- I have… news for you…" She took a deep, shuddering breath, then said, in a rush, "I'm pregnant, Rod."

"What?" His eyes widened, then his face broke into the widest smile she had ever seen on her normally stoic, expressionless husband. "Bella, I can't even begin to say how happy that makes me!" He embraced her tightly. "We have to celebrate! Come into the kitchen, we'll have the house elves make something for us!"

He took her arm and all but dragged her into the kitchen, snapping his fingers at the house elves. "Make us dinner! Something special! Something for Bella… Bella, what sort of dessert would you like?"

She looked away from him. The fact that he was so excited would make the second part of what she had to tell him all the more difficult.

"Blueberry pie," she mumbled, shrugging. Maybe she wouldn't have to tell him. Maybe he could go his whole life without her ever telling him and die happy.

"You heard her," Rodolphus told the house elves. "Blueberry pie." He embraced her again. "Blueberry pie for my pregnant wife…"

"Get off me, Rod," she told him, pulling away, but Rodolphus was too engrossed in his own happiness to care. He chattered on and on about how happy this made him while the house elves prepared them dinner, and when they sat down to eat he didn't even slow down. By the time the blueberry pie was in front of her, Bellatrix was more than ready to tell him the truth just so that he would shut up.

"Rodolphus!"

He paused mid sentence and looked at her. "What?"

Bellatrix took a deep breath then let it out slowly. There was no pleasant way to say this, but it needed to be said.

"The baby's not yours, Rod," she told him flatly.

A long, shocked pause.

"_What_?"

"The baby isn't yours."

"How- why- how can you be sure?" Rodolphus sputtered.

"Because you're impotent, remember that, Roddy?" she spat, face twisting into a sneer. "We've been married for years. If you had it in you to get me pregnant, you would have a long time ago."

"Wh- whose is it, then?" But he already knew the answer perfectly well. He had seen the looks passed between his wife and the Dark Lord. Their affair was hardly secret. He shut his eyes and bowed his head, glaring at his hands.

"Rod," Bellatrix said, "I'm not done yet. I mean, the baby's not yours… biologically… but you are my husband, and… and I want you to help me raise it as though it's your own. And after all," she added with a hint of bitterness in her voice, "it's not as though the Dark Lord's the paternal type…"

Rodolphus's face flushed crimson and he stood up from the table. "You've got a hell of a lot of nerve, you know! You've just admitted to sleeping with the Dark Lord, and now you want me to help you raise _his_ baby? Jesus Christ, Bellatrix! No. No! I don't have to put up with this!" He turned on his heel and started for the kitchen door.

"Where are you going?" Bellatrix demanded.

"I'm leaving! Don't expect me back! I'm not going to stay married to a woman who would sleep with the Dark Lord rather than me!"

"You can't just- just leave me!" Bellatrix protested.

"Watch me!"

"Bastard!"

"Whore!"

"Don't you dare call me that!"

"I'll call you whatever I want! I'm sure the Dark Lord calls you worse!"

Rodolphus slammed the door shut behind him. Bellatrix wrenched it open and followed, not bothering to grab a cloak despite the unpleasant weather outside. She ran after him, through the hallways, down into the grounds of the manor.

"Come back here, Rod!" she called as she ran after him, but he was faster than she was and he didn't turn back.

Bellatrix's anger quickly faded into despair. She had been counting on stoic, understanding Rodolphus to be willing to help her with the baby. She didn't know how to raise a baby on her own.

There was a storm in the air, hovering over the manor, and the air had gone bitterly cold. Bellatrix lost sight of her husband far too quickly, and slowed, resting her hand on her stomach. The grounds were extensive and she was quite sure she was already lost – the heavy wet mist made it difficult to see more than a hundred yards in front of her.

There was nowhere to sit and she just couldn't drag her feet any further. Bellatrix stopped and rested a hand on her stomach.

Tears sprung to her eyes.

"Rod," she whispered, wiping at them, "if you're not here, who's going to be my baby's father?"

The Dark Lord would never accept that the child was his.

)O(

Eight and a half months later, Bellatrix tossed and turned in childbed, sobbing in the pain of labour. She had refused midwives and healers, threatening to hex anyone who came into her sight save for Narcissa. Which left poor Cissy with the task of taking her sister through childbirth.

"Shh," she murmured, rubbing Bellatrix's stomach in circles. "It's going to be okay, Bella… it's going to be a strong, healthy baby…"

"Get it out of me!" was all Bellatrix could scream as she thrashed and writhed on the bed. "I don't want the fucking baby! Get it out of me!"

Narcissa flinched, but managed to keep her voice steady. "It'll be out soon, Bella, just push… push hard."

Bellatrix's body arched off the bed and she let out a shriek, pushing with all her might.

Narcissa wasn't sure how long she spent desperately trying to help her sister through childbirth. She begged to send for a doctor, but Bellatrix refused, which left Narcissa all alone to deal with getting the child out. It was hours before, at last, the top of a wrinkled, red head appeared between Bellatrix's legs.

"Push, push harder," Narcissa urged, gripping Bellatrix's hand and gently massaging her stomach. "I can see it now, Bella, it won't be much longer…

Bellatrix wailed and her body arched as she pushed as hard as she could, and a little more of the baby appeared. Narcissa let out a gasp of relief and gently took hold of either side of the baby's head, helping to ease it out of her sister's body.

It was hours before the tiny, red, wrinkled creature finally slid out. Bellatrix, who had been screaming at the top of her lungs, finally sank back onto the pillows, gasping for air. She touched her stomach, felt between her legs, then looked up at Narcissa with red, teary eyes.

"M- my baby?"

"Yes, Bella," Narcissa said, picking up the child. She used her wand to pull mucus from the baby's lungs, and it let out a little mewling cry. Narcissa handed it to Bellatrix, who took one look at it and burst into renewed tears.

"What's wrong?" Narcissa asked, gently stroking her sister's hair. "It's okay… your baby is strong, and healthy, and Rod's going to be so happy…"

"No," Bellatrix sobbed, cradling the child and squeezing her eyes shut. "No, he's not."

"What?"

"Rod hates me," Bellatrix whispered. "He hates me… and he has every right to."

Narcissa dismissed it as childbed delirium.

)O(

_Fin_


End file.
